The National Library of Medicine is mandated by the Congress of the United States to collect and preserve biomedical information and to make this information available to US and world medical practitioners, researchers, and communities in support of patient care, medical education, and research. In fulfillment of this mission, NLM has, for over 30 years, microfilmed brittle monographs and serials and provided for conservation treatment of the rare and valuable materials in its collections. As the percentage of the collection that is in microform grows, it becomes increasingly important for NLM to make service copies of its microfilms available for on-site patron use and for fulfillment of interlibrary loan and purchase requests. This contract provides for the rapid production of high quality 3rd generation 35mm service copy microfilm for already filmed materials that are: 1) judged to be of artifactual value or too deteriorated for use in their original format; 2) missing from the NLM collection and borrowed from other libraries prior to September 1989; 3) requested on interlibrary loan; 4) requested for purchase. In the case of item 4), NLM shall provide the contractor with the purchaser's proof of permission to copy; the contractor shall produce the microfilm copy and shall ship and bill directly to the purchaser. It is estimated that in 25% of the cases a print master will first have to be made from the archival camera negative by the contractor before the service copy can be produced.